Exmoor Self Catering Holiday Cottages

General information

The idea for RecommendedFamilyHolidays.com was first conceived whilst sipping a cool beer or two around a beautiful swimming pool in the sunflower region of Poitou-Charentes in France whilst on holiday with my family in July 2009. There were probably a few reasons for this:

My existing job in the world of finance was becoming a nightmare around caring for two children under 5 and a husband who commutes to London every day - I was permanently exhausted!!

Sadly my health was failing with spinal problems, so I was finding it increasingly difficult to physically get out to work. I wanted to continue working to keep me sane and occupy my mind on those bad days rather than feeling sorry for myself; I needed an income; I needed something that would allow me to continue to work whilst laid up – sometimes I have to spend time in a wheelchair and can no longer sit at a desk, my office is now my sofa!!

I seemed to spend (waste?) so much time looking for a self-catering family holiday that would be suitable for the children and for us as parents - it just seemed like aimless trawling of the internet through multiple websites to still end up with just a small choice of destinations and then endless emails just to make sure that they had the facilities that we, as a family, needed and wanted.

I needed a new challenge and setting up my own business in a completely different field has certainly been that!! I knew a little about building a website after teaching myself whilst on enforced maternity leave - I am not the best advert for pregnancy having had a pretty bad time. I hasten to say, I wouldn't change it for the world as my two boys are a complete joy, particularly when I am not very well and even at aged 4 and 6 as they are now, they are so understanding and helpful and I am so, so proud of them.

The aim of RecommendedFamilyHolidays.com is to provide a "one-stop" shop to find suitable accommodation that welcomed families and helped mums and dad to actually enjoy their holidays rather than worry about the kids, the packing, the facilities on holiday, the hassle etc. etc. It can be very daunting holidaying as a family and if you get the wrong place, it can be a disaster. My ideal holiday has something for the kids to do, somewhere for them to play, preferably a catering service so I am not always having to cook but also allowing the flexibility of self catering so the kids can have what they want when they want it, a dishwasher, washing machine, TV and DVD for obvious reasons, and either a kids club or babysitting so I can actually spend some time with my husband – a luxury that is always hard to have with a young family.

Through experience I found that the best holidays that we had been on as a family were those recommended by other mums and dads - similar people to us who recognised a good holiday. I believe a "tried and tested" holiday has greater chance of being a successful holiday and therefore I captured this idea in RecommendedFamilyHolidays.com. Users of the website provide direct feedback to me on the properties that are advertised on the site - the more recommendations a property has, the more prominent it appears on the site. I also have a "top 25" recommended properties page so users can see, at a glance, the most recommended family holiday destinations - these are by far the most popular properties on the website.

I am always more than happy to offer any free advice or support to other mums or dads who want to set up their own business